A medical team of eight Turkish doctors that have successfully transferred a uterus from a deceased woman into a young woman that was previously unable to conceive are hopeful that the patient will now be able to become pregnant.

Derya Sert received the transplant at Antalya’s Akdeniz University in August 2011 and has since had normal menstruations; the woman said she was now also looking forward to becoming pregnant.Doctors from the university will explain the process and the transplant to American doctors during the upcoming American Association of Gynecologic Laparascopists (AAGL) conference.

Speaking about the process and the transplant, Professor Münire Erman Akar said: “Previously we witnessed a pregnancy of a sheep after this operation. This time we will witness a human.”

One in 5,000 women worldwide is born without a uterus. Although the absence of a uterus does not pose a health risk, it prevents these women from conceiving a child.

The successful transplant conducted in Turkey could open up the door to thousands of women who suffer from the malady.

In 2002, a uterus was transplanted into a Saudi woman, but she had to have the transplant removed 99 days later when her body began to refuse the implanted uterus.